TAUPO.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5332, 17 March 1879, Page 2

TAUPO.

[from our own correspondent.] March 13, 1879. This season, as regards weather, has been the best experienced in this district for the last ten years, with every prospect of its continuance for two or three months more. Taupo, under such circumstances, possesses, without exception, the finest climate in the world. The balmy atmos- . phere is tempered by our high altitude ; (1200 to 2000£t. above sea level) while its unequalled scenery of lake, hill, and dale, its crags, and peaks, its boiling springs I with steaming geysers, and its living volcano shooting up from amidst perpetual snows, render this the strangest and yet , ' one of the most charming spots to those who are accustomed to its unsurpassed monotony. At all events I don't intend leaving it, and as Rewi has drawn his line some miles to the westward of this garrison town, there appear to be no grounds for any alarm of compulsory ejectment. The old barbarian paid this locality a friendly visit the other day, and as an old identity and your correspondent, I could not do less than call upon him, which I accordingly did in the company of Major and Dr. , with a newly arrived friend of mine, whose imagination, like that of most inexperienced Englishmen, was somewhat tinged with the warm coloring of Fenimore Cooper's sketches of the noble red man. As our party rode along on our Rosinantes towards the picturesque village of Omanui, my friend pictured our meeting with the illustrious ex-rebel, much as the revered Don Quixote himself addressed the windmills. After an eight mile ride we struck the village, amidst the howling of curs — animals that would have shamed the farfamed dogs of the gutters of Stamboul — and alighted at the door of a long, low, thatched hut, within which we were informed " Manga " had taken up his abode. We humbly entered the Council-hall of this semi-royal savage by bending well our heads, and going in on all fours until suddenly brought up against the opposite wall, my romantic friend hitting his shins severely against an iron pot which stood cheek by jowl alongside a little decrepid old man, who turned out afterwards to be the personage who had come to see. The place was lined on both sides by a motley assemblage of sitting and prostrate figures, whose facial orifices betokened recent contact with the greasy pot which had so suddenly interrupted the progress of my English Mend. Our entry caused some little flutter of curiosity among the recumbents, excepting the old gentleman before mentioned, who sat stolidly by the pot, gazing steadily into its oleaginous depths. After giving and receiving a general salute of " tenakoes " all round, we sat down waiting for the ceremony or reception to begin. A protracted silence ensued until the Major, who had been invited to the semi-royal presence, began to tire of the monotony, and having recourse to the good old custom of his ancestors on such occasions, began to comment freely on the weather, the crops, &c, but all to no purpose. Either the mysteries of the pot were engrossing the whole thoughts of our aboriginal host, or else our sudden appearance in the midst of that august assembly had awkwardly interrupted the flow of their souls and their feast of potatoes and preserved pork. Be it as it may, the crop and the weather topic becoming exhausted, and nothing further occurring to breas the stillness of the scene, we effected our exit in a similarly lowly manner to our entry, and mounting our steeds, rode rapidly home again, not much wiser men than when we left. It was afterwards learned that the Major's invitation was given unknown to old Manga himself, or else our reception would probably have been of a more demonstrative; but could not have been of a more amusing character. Our English friend somewhat in high dudgeon, on returning immediately turned to a re-perusal of the " .Last of the Mohicans," with a view of discovering analogous incidents related there of his noble friend the red man, but he rose from his studies disappointed and disgusted, and I understand, intends writing a book on the general collapse of romance in this century, even among the simple children of the primaeval forest, and as a signal gun on the subject, invented that remarkable telegram which lately appeared in the papers, gravely asserting that Major — — had been grossly insulted by the illustrious "Manga." The foregoing sketch of the scene conveys a fair idea of what really happened on the occasion. Since then "Manga," who is better known as Rewi, has held a meeting with the Hauhaus on the western shores of Lake Taupo, and it is reported that he, for the first time in public openly advocated the giving of land for railways thronghout the country. This is one of the most impor-.. tant items of intelligence that could possibly be heard of in this island, and it is to be hoped that the report is true. In my next I hope to be able to confirm these really glad tidings.